What's the Holdup?

Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Acts 1.6-14

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

Once again, the disciples find themselves in an “in-between” time. An in-between time that we share as part of our journey through Eastertide, as we approach Pentecost in just one week’s time. The disciples have been here before. Sort of. Following Jesus’ death on Good Friday, they experienced the in-between time of waiting for the resurrection Jesus had foretold. Now, six weeks later, they are back in another, a different, in-between time. Only now, it is the time between the Risen Christ’s Ascension into heaven and the Day of Pentecost. A time of waiting for the promised sending of the Holy Spirit upon them. Unlike the first in-between time, between Good Friday and Easter, this one is qualitatively different. And, as we shall see, has a very different purpose.

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I Will Not Leave You Orphaned

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Acts 17.22-31; John 14.15-21

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

“I will not leave you orphaned.” Jesus says these words to his disciples in the early part of his Farewell Discourse. He has already told them multiple times that he will be killed. He is sharing a final meal with those closest to him before his Passion, before his death. The disciples are obviously anxious, confused, distraught, even devastated at the mere idea of this coming to pass. In the first part of his Farewell Discourse—both in his words that we heard last week, and in the words we heard a few moments ago—Jesus is seeking to calm the disciples’ fears, and particularly their concerns about what his departure means for them. “I will not leave you orphaned.” An interesting choice of words.

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Embodying Eternal Life

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

1 Peter 2.2-10; John 14.1-14

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

 

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

Occasionally, someone will ask me: “So, what is heaven really like?” Presuming that, as a priest, I have some secret inside knowledge about such matters. No, we do not take a class in seminary that reveals hidden secrets. When we are ordained, we are not given a secret manual with the answers to the sacred mysteries. My response to that question is usually something along the lines of “We really don’t know. The only person to have come back from heaven didn’t give us any details.”

 

I think such questions about heaven are prompted in part by our natural curiosity about the unknown, and in part by such passages as our Gospel for today. After all, it starts off with Jesus saying, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” Or, as in the King James Version, “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” Even though I can only afford a two-bedroom apartment in this life—in Southern California, anyway—at least I will get a mansion for all eternity.

 

While today’s Gospel reading and the imagery of a heaven filled with McMansions for all sounds appealing, and while such imagery is intended to say something about our eternal life in God’s heavenly realm, one commentator cautions that it is not about “celestial real estate.” While certainly having implications for our eternal life, the broader intent of Jesus’ image of dwelling places for all is a metaphor for relationship with God and Christ in the broadest of terms.

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